Bio on Mat McKinley - Founder of Hotwired Music

Mat McKinley has been a freelance composer, arranger, programmer and performer of music for a wide range of media including TV, Radio, Multi and Interactive Media, Theatre, Modern Dance and Commercial Music production. His work has been heard on the BBC, ITV, Channels 4 and 5, Sky and many other National and International satellite and cable networks.

Mat worked on a number of different projects with us both as a composer and arranger. His diverse musical talent paired with his creative ability when under pressure made him an indispensable part of the team.Mark Sayer-Wade (The Music Sculptors)

Mat spent nearly 20 years as a visiting lecturer at Alchemea College of Audio Engineering in London until its closure in April 2015. He taught music theory and modern composition techniques employing his own unique methodology. Due in part to the success of the courses at Alchemea, he decided to write a unique and comprehensive series of books (called The Hotwired Music Production Pack) to form a “how to” guide regarding modern and creative composition. Mat is still involved at every stage of the pack's manufacture as it is the culmination of many years of his work.

Mat has programmed many clinic tracks for me over the past 10 years and you can take it from me that his programming expertise is simply fantastic. If you want to learn to program to the highest professional standard, then buy his books - you won't be disappointedPaul Elliot (Drummer - performed with Frank Gambale, Stu Hamm, Shaun Baxter, Manu Katche, Steve Smith, Mark Mondesir - ex principal instructor at Drum Tech London)

Writing the books also inspired him to write his own music courses and subsequently he set up Hotwired Music in 2006 to be the vehicle for his exciting, innovative and systematic approach to music learning. From 2015, Hotwired has added two new group courses to its line up.

Experience

Mat started learning music at an early age, principally on the piano but also dabbled with the clarinet and drums. Being thoroughly dissatisfied and disillusioned by conventional methods he stopped music lessons altogether around the age of 14. He found he learnt so much more about “music” just by playing and experimenting himself and also by “listening” to great musicians from diverse genres of music. Subsequently his musical influences encompass virtually every genre and this amalgamation of knowledge and experience has been an invaluable asset in the diverse field of media composition. He now draws upon his personal experiences, inimitable learning devices and insatiable passion to teach others about the joy of discovering what music really is about! He has played keys in many bands incorporating live performance and studio session work, but now dedicates far more time to composing in the studio and delivering inspiring music experiences. Mat’s teaching abilities have been well documented by his fellow professional colleagues and students alike. To date he has taught more than 1000 people through his courses at Hotwired, Alchemea and privately.

Drive

A fascination with how the mind works in relation to music creativity and improvisation has really helped Mat to deliver exciting and very unique perspectives on how to approach learning an instrument or tackling the art of writing music. See his blogConnecting to Creativity.